It is well known in the prior art of automotive vehicles to provide an airbag assembly for protection of a vehicle occupant. These prior art airbag assemblies typically are deployed from in front of a person or from a seat or roof line of an automotive vehicle. The airbags generally include an inflatable cushion structure in communication with a gas emitting inflator. When predetermined vehicle conditions occur an airbag cushion is deployed outwardly from its stored position in the dashboard, roof, seat or other component within a vehicle interior into a position between the occupant and the interior portions of a vehicle against which the occupant might otherwise come in contact with. The use of the airbag cushion between the occupant and interior portions of the vehicle may provide a cushioning effect for the occupant against hard impacts with the interior portions of the vehicle during an accident situation.
Many prior art airbag systems for use in motor vehicles may have an airbag arranged within a seat. These types of airbags generally deploy through a molded plastic cover or a sewn seam in a cover material of the seat. Many of these prior art seat airbags penetrate the seat cover by tearing open a sewn seam in the seat cover. However, there have been deficiencies in the prior art with such systems, i.e., ballooning of the seat cover may sometimes occur prior to failure of the seam, which may increase the amount of time required for the airbag to exit the seat and could result in delayed positioning of the airbag with relation to the occupant during a crash event. Furthermore, there also have been problems with the prior art seat airbags in that the more sophisticated and two piece side airbags that deploy a thorax portion of the airbag and a pelvis portion of the airbag are not deploying quick enough to provide proper protection to the pelvis and thorax of a user of these prior art airbag systems in the automotive vehicle during a crash situation. However, many of these prior art seat airbag side impact assemblies have generally been useful in protection of occupants and especially provide useful protection against head and torso injuries.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved seat side airbag seam that tears more quickly and easily and has a more consistent and complete tear along the seam. There is a need in the art for a seam that will allow an airbag having a thorax section and a pelvis section to fully deploy in the least amount of time possible to provide proper protection between the body of the user of the vehicle and the vehicle during a crash situation. There also is a need in the art for an improved design of the seam to which the side airbag deploys such as using a continuous seam from the top of the side panel through a curved portion to a back portion of the side panel of the seat.